KUALA LUMPUR: The Environmental Quality Act 1974 must be reviewed in 2020 in order to punish environmental offenders accordingly, said Alliance of Safety Community (Ikatan) chairman Tan Sri Lee Lam Thye.
He said the government and authorities should beef up on environmental safety, to prevent any recurring pollution incidents.
“The government must review the Act and there is a need to look at the shortcomings and any part of the Act that is weak needs to be rectified.
“We need to tighten regulations to deter anyone from polluting the environment, like dumping illegal toxic waste into the rivers, the streets and even into manholes,” he told Bernama here, recently.
Lee said this in response to the recurring case of water pollution in the country, namely the infamous Sungai Kim Kim toxic pollution incident and Sungai Semenyih odour pollution which recently made headlines.
He said these cases must be looked at very seriously, investigations must be carried out thoroughly to make sure those who are responsible were brought to justice and penalties or punishments were meted out to offenders.
“I think this must be done in order to ensure that Malaysians will have clean water supply and will not face frequent water disruption, and the cases pertaining to pollution must be severely dealt with.
“…We cannot allow this kind of problem to recur every now and then, leading to water disruption and so on,” he added.
Lee said water contamination as a result of illegal dumping of toxic waste into the rivers, streams, and even into manholes has resulted in a lot of water disruption incidents that the community had to face.
It was reported on May 2 that the Energy, Science, Technology, Environment and Climate Change Ministry was in the process of drafting the new legislation to replace the Environmental Quality Act 1974.
Minister Yeo Bee Yin said, among others, the drafting of the new legislation would look into the existing provisions for penalties and who could be brought to court for pollution offences. – Bernama
